How do colleges verify activities

[Anonymous]

Do any actually check? I thought that activities don’t actually matter unless they were truly outstanding. Like the kid founded an actual company and not one the parents paid for.

I’m a teacher and have been a sponsor to many clubs. I’ve never been contacted once to verify anything. I can’t imagine counselors at our huge school are verifying involvement. They aren’t asking me if kids were active in the club.

[Anonymous]

I know our large public school district has no way to check whether an organization really made the kid do the work. The organizations given SSL hours are legit, but it doesn't mean the school has any way of verifying the volunteering. College admissions officers know this.

If you're worried, OP, you should have him write one of his essays about it, and/or, get someone from this organization to write him a letter of recommendation. If he has any other proof that he volunteered and made a difference, it may be hard to include in the app, but at least he can talk about it in the essay.

[Anonymous]

Not one college checks.

This is ridiculous OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not one college checks.

This is ridiculous OP.

This isn’t true. Some of the Ivies were checking this fall.

[Anonymous]

Make a request for the school counselor to include it in her letter. Usually, the counselor meets with the students... the student can talk about it in that meeting (if it's meaningful it'll naturally come up) and parents can include it in the brag sheet. Our counselor was very upfront about asking what we wanted her letter to focus on.

[Anonymous]

They give 10 minutes to each application. They are unlikely to check.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They give 10 minutes to each application. They are unlikely to check.

Some colleges do sport checks for accuracy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Volunteering without impact will not have any weight in your application. Don’t worry about it.

He definitely has impact.

Then unless he's Batman, there will be another adult outside of this who could attest to this, and he could also document the impact. Should the activity get questioned, there would be evidence of it.

Well yes, obviously there are adults who know he does this. But there's no place on the app, as far as i can tell, to put a reference.

So, if he is questioned, he can answer with back-up.

If you are worried that it may affect his application by assumptions without any direct questioning, then have him address it in a letter, in your brag page, or a counselor's reference. It sounds like he is "really intense" about it, from what you said? Then it would be natureal for him to explain something which consumes him in his essay, along with how that plays into his future goals.

If he can't muster that, then you do it. Or the counselor does.

[Anonymous]

^^"have him addres it in the essay"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yale is checking by calling college counselors. UCLA is asking for random applicants to upload pdfs of W2 or paystubs to verify jobs. They are doing a lot more verifying this year

How can school counselor know your volunteer out of school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yale is checking by calling college counselors. UCLA is asking for random applicants to upload pdfs of W2 or paystubs to verify jobs. They are doing a lot more verifying this year

How can school counselor know your volunteer out of school?

They would know if they met with the student. If it's a big public school, bring it up in the counselor meeting and in the parent brag sheet. DC is at a public and did just this - he knew what the teachers would focus on in the LOR, so for any extra things that were important, he made sure to let the counselor know. He was accepted SCEA - of course, we don't know what exactly helped his application, but do your best with every part. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Volunteering without impact will not have any weight in your application. Don’t worry about it.

He definitely has impact.

Then you need to take it serious. Make verifiable evidence available upon request.

Is there news report on his impact? Save it.

Sometimes it's hard to get noticed by your local newspaper. Our school will report it on school website for any newsworthy student achievement in and out of school. You should definitely let the school counselor know about this. When college contacts your counselor who has no clue on what your DS did, it would not reflect well on your DS.

[Anonymous]

Simple answer: they don’t because they can’t. It’s too expensive to do so. This is where Dcum counselors- advising affluent clients- do their magic. Wink wink 😜

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yale is checking by calling college counselors. UCLA is asking for random applicants to upload pdfs of W2 or paystubs to verify jobs. They are doing a lot more verifying this year

How can school counselor know your volunteer out of school?

They would know if they met with the student. If it's a big public school, bring it up in the counselor meeting and in the parent brag sheet. DC is at a public and did just this - he knew what the teachers would focus on in the LOR, so for any extra things that were important, he made sure to let the counselor know. He was accepted SCEA - of course, we don't know what exactly helped his application, but do your best with every part. Good luck!

Couldn’t kids just lie to counselor too? This doesn’t accomplish anything

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Simple answer: they don’t because they can’t. It’s too expensive to do so. This is where Dcum counselors- advising affluent clients- do their magic. Wink wink 😜

Exactly